Gotcha discipline concerns
According to KMOV.com in St. Louis, Missouri, tensions are bubbling up between St. Louis Police and the officers’ union over the possibility of officers wearing body cameras. St. Louis Police said it would cost around $1.2 million to outfit all 1300 officers with body cameras. The police union said it must agree to any policy covering body cameras before a policy is adopted. “They can’t employ this equipment without violating the union contract they signed,” said Jeff Roorda, an official with the St. Louis Police Officers Association.
Union representatives told News 4 police and the union must forge an agreement on what the recordings will be used for before any decision is made on whether to use body cameras. “This gotcha discipline that we have with the dash board cameras is what we’d be afraid of,” Roorda said.